Top 3 Concerts of the Coming Week

Judas Priest was indisputably the pioneer of heavy metal. It helped develop the dual-guitar attack, has a dozen gold and platinum albums and was ranked by MTV as the second Greatest Metal Band of all time.

Yet, after 40 years together (this year is that anniversary of its debut album, “Roca Rolla”), the band somehow still is being discovered by new legions of fans. Its most recent disc, “Redeemer of Souls,” released in July, is its highest-charting ever in the United States, putting the group in the top 10 for the first time.

Despite those fans, this will be Judas Priest’s first concert in the Lehigh Valley in more than 30 years.

Norah Jones is a nine-time Grammy Award winner who sold nearly 15 million copies of her first two chart-topping albums. She could be selling out venues (she drew nearly 5,000 to Bethlehem’s Musikfest in 2010), yet here she is playing an intimate cafe with a 1,000-person capacity.

The difference is, Jones isn’t doing it as a solo artist, but with her alt-country trio, Puss nÖ Boots, with jazz singer-songwriter Sasha Dobson and rock/country bassist Catherine Popper. And perhaps the rub is that she doesn’t play her own music, but mostly country covers of stars such as Johnny Cash, Neil Young, George Jones and even Wilco.

When Fleetwood Mac played Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center in 2013, the big reason to see it was the question of whether its members would ever reunite again. Drummer Mick Fleetwood expressed doubts, bassist John McVie was battling cancer and Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were touring solo.

A year later, not only is the group back on tour, but keyboardist/singer Christine McVie has returned to the fold for the first time in 16 years, meaning her voice is again heard on such songs as “You Make Lovin’ Fun” and “Don’t Stop.”

The group also reportedly is nearing completion of its first album in more than a decade, but has said the tour likely will preclude it from coming out before 2015.